Three Olympic medals, two of which are gold. Four Olympic berths. A Nike sponsorship. A clothing line. A television show. World records. Several honors as USA Shooting Athlete of the Year.

Kim Rhode has become arguably the most decorated and recognizable Olympic shooter in the U.S., all because the Monrovia resident couldn’t think of something to write nearly 20 years ago.

She was attending her first USA Shooting camp at the U.S. Olympic training grounds in Colorado Springs, Colo. The first-time attendees were asked to write down things they could not do. Rhode, then 12, did not write anything.

The coaches asked her why she wasn’t writing.

“I said, `Because I believe there is nothing I can’t do in this world,’ ” she recalled. “I can do anything I put my mind to. He goes, `That’s what makes Olympic champions: knowing you can win. Knowing you can break every target out there, because if you have any doubt, you’ve already lost.’

“That is something that has stuck with me throughout my whole shooting career. It’s amazing how that has stuck. If you look at the great athletes, people say it’s impossible, but you’re able to do it.”

It’s a tell-tale sign for Rhode, who became the youngest shooter to win Olympic gold when she was an Arroyo High School senior in 1996.

She later became the first shooter to sign an endorsement deal with Nike.

She is one of the few USA shooters to become the top Olympic qualifier in two disciplines.

Olympic shooters seemingly get in the spotlight only every four years. They typically have to find ways to make ends meet to practice full time.

Rhode, who will be 29 when the Games begin next month, appears to have kept that sheet of paper blank. The world of shooting, by its nature, can be insular and guarded. It’s close-knit, with seemingly very few contacts outside the industry. Athletes are sponsored by firearm manufacturers and outdoor companies; Rhode has been associated with firearm manufacturer Winchester for 18 years.

So, a deal with Nike? A company that promotes multi-millionaire basketball, football and baseball players? A company that seems more about high-profile athletes with first-name or initial recognition (MJ, Tiger, Kobe, A-Rod and Serena)?

“In a lot of respects, I’ve worked really hard to really break outside that box,” Rhode said of shooting’s inner sanctum. “I think a lot of shooters talk about preaching to the choir. I’ve really tried to introduce more women, more youths into a sport that has taught me a lot. I think by doing so that has brought sponsors like Nike and a lot of those type of companies, because that is what they represent.

“Nike definitely represents a lot with families with youths and kids and the future. It’s a great combination. They said, `Do you want to be a Nike athlete?’ and I was like, `Why not?’ ”

It’s a boon for Rhode and for the industry.

“It’s a huge deal for the industry and for her to get that sponsorship,” said Michael Bane, an Outdoor Channel show producer and former spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

“It goes to show we really can reach out; it’s really outside of the box and it really opens the doors to a lot of other companies in the Olympic movement as well as in the shooting industry,” Rhode said. “It shows that we can do this; this is something that we can obtain, and it will definitely help future generations.”

NSSF senior vice president Chris Dolnack told The Shooting Wire late last year that’s how he sees it, too.

“The race is on to get your company’s product into the hands of the evangelists – pros who shoot often and shoot well, who travel and meet lots of people, who are charismatic and influential in building brand awareness, and who ultimately help move product out the door,” he told the Web site.

Rhode won the final Olympic gold in women’s double trap at the 2004 Games in Athens. She subsequently took two years off from competition. She bought, and then renovated, a Monrovia house. She then began arduous training sessions in international skeet. She became the host of the television show “Step Outside” on the Outdoor Channel, became engaged, and set a world record in her first international competition in March 2007 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Nike came calling in May and so did SHE Safari, which commissioned her to do the Rhode Wear Shooting Apparel clothing line. She also is preparing for a future NBC television show in which she will make trick shots.

But the big change has been her sport. She compares shooting double trap and skeet to swimming and diving, in that they both have water.

In double trap, two clay targets are fired out of an underground bunker at the same time away from the athlete. The Olympic Committee eliminated the event after the ’04 Games.

In international skeet, there are seven stations in a semicircle and a station in the center of the semicircle. Competitors fire at clays, one or two at a time, and they travel horizontally and in opposite directions. In double trap, athletes can fire at both with their gun mounted on their shoulder. In skeet, they fire at the first target from their hip and then mount the gun on their shoulder to try to hit the second target.

Rhode’s August date in Beijing – her third trip to China – will not be her first foray into the world of Olympic skeet. In 2000, in Sydney, Australia, she finished fifth in the event after taking the bronze in double trap. In Athens, she finished sixth after winning gold.

“Even though I had done it previously, I just kind of had done it for fun at that time,” she said. “It would be equivalent of a swimmer versus a diver. They both have to do with water. It’s like a football player going to soccer. It’s quite a bit different, like night and day. I had shot it some, but nothing at that level.”

But she had to, if she wanted to have a chance at remaining in the Games. Shooting the same MX-12 Perazzi she fired in ’96, the one with more than a million shotgun casings that have been ejected from the firing chamber, she practiced and practiced. Up to six hours a day, 700 to 1,000 clays a day.

“It was very hard,” she said. “From the gun mount to the gun fit, everything. I pretty much had to start over. To be consistent and shoot those high scores, it took a lot of training. There is a lot of practice, a lot of frustration, but it was well worth it at the end.

“There is a lot more leads to memorize. There are quite a few changes and challenges. It’s never easy.”

The Oak Tree Gun Club in Newhall, which had built a double trap range for her, put in an international skeet range. In the final years of double trap, an arm injury had hampered her efforts, but she said she spent her two-year absence working those muscles to improve her shooting. She still racks up the airline miles, being away from home about 160 days a year, shooting, making guest appearances and representing causes that have always been dear to her heart, such as Kids & Clays, which benefits the Ronald McDonald House or the NSSF’s Scholastic Clay Target Program.

She hit 98 out of 100 clays in that world-record World Cup victory in the Dominican Republic. Then in March, she continued the run by taking the six-day U.S. Olympic Selection match (broken into fall and spring competitions with a combined score), winning by two clays.

Of her 500 clays in the Trials, she missed only 26.

“I was so nervous,” she said of her first international competition, when she set the record. “It was like the first competition I’ve ever been in. It’s like starting all over again. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I was also very nervous at the Olympic Trials, and you’re even more nervous when you’re out of your own element.”

But Rhode said she has experienced newfound joy in switching disciplines.

“When you do do it, it’s so much sweeter, especially when people tell you, `It ain’t going to happen’ or `Quit now,’ ” she said. “That makes it that much sweeter. You most definitely (wonder). I’m my harshest critic and that definitely is something I had to overcome. In doubles, I was at the top, and having to start all over again, you obviously are not at the top. It is something you have to work your way back up and something that is hard to follow.”

New sport, same face, same blank piece of paper. Rhode said she would not be competing if she didn’t think she could bring home her fourth medal from her fourth different Games, a feat achieved by few athletes.

“It’s almost borderline arrogance at some point,” she said of her confidence in winning. “In reality, you have to believe and know you can win. In ’96, everyone believed I would win a bronze. That was the best they figured I could do. Now, had I thought that way, I probably would not have walked away with anything. You have to know you can do it. I think I know.”

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